we’ve been cooking with a lot of veggies lately… i always try to experiment with what’s in season which makes the cooking more diversified, too!
read the mouse over text of each image to get details on the regarding dish….
as you know, cooking is my passion. cooking myself, cooking for or with others, watching cooking on Tv, and cooking lessons! since i’m in malta i’ve just finished my second cooking class. the first i did with pippa mattei, which was a great one-day experience. the second, was a six week cooking class with annaliza delia which was great fun, too! it’s lovely to meet a couple of times and exchange experiences and ideas… everybody cooks so differently so what i liked most is getting inspiration from various perspectives. as pippa cooked typical maltese style, annaliza’s slogan is cooking made fun– fast and practical cooking very light and healthy food, often vegetarian.
also, for my as a foreigner here in malta it’s a great opportunity to get in touch with people and learn about the local habits (e.g. where to shop the best veggies etc.). and believe me, you also hear interesting stories about maltese life and people 🙂 i hope i’ll get the chance to visit more cooking classes – i actually can’t wait for the next one to come!
check out the mouse over text of each photo below to get find out more…
i didn’t have such a great time lately.. somehow grumpy, moody and easily nerved i didn’t really know what’s going on.. but, as always – there’s no up without a down and today, on day 10, the UP came back! thanks to you lovely people enriching my day… for neverending love and affection, for a lovely afternoon lunch on a terrace which is making me jealous, for a energising and relaxing yoga lesson at one of my favourite yoga studios yogaintentions and finally a cosy chilled out dinner after class.
which brings me to another of culinary favourites in malta, which i love to share with you: GOCHI
gochi is a cute littel japanese place which serves fresh and very yummy sushi. they have a comfortable lounge where you can sit on nice cushions or sofas which i rather prefer to the normal chair and table setting as it’s very laid back. they have lovely soups (noodle and miso) and a super fresh and healthy sweewead salad which i love (see photo on the left).
staff is very friendly and on wednesdays i like it best as there’s always live music. just perfect after a nice yoga class!
but now back to my own cooking!
in addition to the stir fry of last weekend i wanted to show you another variantion of stir fry: this time with chicken and spinach, served with fried egg rice.
as you can see there are millions of possibilities what to use for it. you can also have it with egg noodels, or use indian spices and eat it with naan bread… whatever you feel like – try it out and give yourself a treat!
and finally, together with some yoga, lovely people and maybe some sushi, your down will hopefully get an UP again, too 😉
get more details on the dishes by moving the mouse over the regarding photo!
after last night’s entertainment, today was a very chilled out, lazy day.. long sleep, hanging out on the balcony all day long chatting, reading (i get to like p’s ipad more and more as i got my favourite german gossip magazine online, yeah!) until my old friend appetite knocked at the door. so what to cook?? inspired from some jamie oliver videos on youtube i decided for something quick and easy – stir fry it shall be! looking for treasures in my freezer i was lucky: stir fry with prawns and green asparagus it was finally..
and the best of it: in less than 30min!
check out more details in the mouse over text of each photo when you move your mouse over the regarding image!
.. this is how my beloved friend e described yesterday night’s dinner in our big guest book. how sweet is that??? full of funny stories and self drawn pictures, this book with its little notes, mostly taken at a very late stage of the evening, got a true companion over the last two years in vienna and now in malta.. we should reallyget it out more often..
anyways, to be honest. i love vegetarian food a lot, so it was not a problem, but more a pleasure to cook a vegetarian menu for our dear guests… also, the dishes were all very easy and quick to prepare, this is just how i like it most: relaxed, unpretentious cooking, 2h of preperation time without a hurry and still some time to enjoy it!
especially now, as the nights get longer and it gets dark earlier, i like to cook and invite friends over even more than in summer.. always with me on the kitchen desk: my little red cook book with all my recipes (my mum gave it to me ages ago for christmas), i little nibble (a hungry cook is a bad cook!) and a glass of wine (well, just because i like it!).. how shouldn’t this bring you in a great mood!??!
as a starter i made my jerusalem artichoke soup (wrote about it last week) and as a main i made an asian red lentil curry with couscous with tons of fresh veggies and spices. for desert we had our all time favourite: crumble with pumbs and lemon mascarpone cream.
check out more details in the mouse over text when you move your mouse over the image!
tonight i did some experimental cooking with maltese sausage! it’s typically made of pork, sea salt, black peppercorns, coriander seeds and parsley and it’s veeeeeeeeeery tasty…
p loves them, so we bought more of them 2 weeks ago. we couldn’t eat them all so i put them in the freezer. tonight was the night when p suddenly remembered them! so what to do with them when not eating raw on fresh maltese bread??? (which is also a very yummy option to have them). i googled a bit and found an interesting recipe for maltese sausage pasta bake. so why not gonna try something new?! no risk no fun & it was worth it! it’s a super quick dish, very very tasty – you don’t even have to use any salt or pepper or spices – the maltese sausage has it all!
find more details on each step when you put your mouse over each image!
pumpkin is a big veggie in austria. we have the famous pumpkin seed oil, pumpkin pesto, pumpkin bread.. i can’t get these fancy foods here in malta, but i do get pumpkin! so i wanted to make some soup… though it turned out totally different from the soups i made at home. in the past i always used hokkaido pumpkin, small in size but big in taste! and it’s handy to use as you don’t have to peel it.
here in malta i got huge pieces of big monster pumpkins from the veggie man: orange and white, which was a mistake to use for the soup! luckily i had more of the orange one and added nearly double of the amount at the end to make it more tasty. i didn’t like version 1 at all! but’s that’s what it’s all about in live, isn’t it.. you live you learn.. (reminds me of the song of alanis morisette which i loved when i was 13…)
read more details on each step of preparation in the mouse over text or when you click on the image!
well, this is finally how it turned out, pumpkin soup v2:
ingredients: fresh pumpkin, 1 onion, garlic, veggie stock, bit of milk/ cream cheese (also coconut milk or cream will do), fresh salt and pepper, chili, ginger powder, curcuma, lemon pepper, bit of lime, fresh parsley, sesame
malta has a lot of restaurants. and i always like to try out new places. sometimes recommended by friends i trust, sometimes i read about restaurants on trip advisor. seems like a good place to get the vibe of a place…
i went to following places recently. if you wanna know how i liked them, click to read my impressions and opinions which i posted on trip advisor:
Nadisunshine 